Review – Death of a Salesman (1986)

Dustin Hoffman (as Willy) and John Malkovich (as Biff) star in this 1986 production of Arthur Miller’s “American tragedy.” I’m not particularly fond of the play itself; it’s a touch too sentimental for my tastes, and I’ve always found Willy more pathetic than tragic. But I do have to admire the cast’s workmanlike handling of action and dialogue that seems somewhat dated and occasionally ill-suited for the screen. Mildly amusing

Review – 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea

When I was a kid I wanted to grow up to be Captain Nemo. Now this guy’s got it made. He lives in a cool submarine, and his only job is to go around sinking ships full of people who sound like they desperately need killing. And I’ll bet a dude who’s such a snappy dresser and plays the organ to boot has no trouble getting dates, assuming there were any dates to be gotten (and on a submarine in a Disney film, you know the answer to that question is “no”). I guess we’re supposed to regard the Kirk Douglas character as the hero, the brash, swaggering all-American seaman type and all that. But I still side with James Mason’s Nemo, the ultimate anti-hero and a child’s introduction to eco-terrorism. Worth seeing

Review – The Serpent and the Rainbow

No film could ask for an odder set of circumstances. The book upon which the movie is loosely based is a fairly dry treatise by an ethno-botanist about his experiences trying to learn the secrets of the tetrodotoxin-laced zombie powder used in Haitian rituals. However, after Wes “Nightmare on Elm Street” Craven gets done with it, there’s a lot of supernatural mumbo-jumbo thrown in. The effects are cheap, but every once in awhile they’re good for a shudder or two. If you can choke down the New Age pseudo-religion and kindergarten take on Haitian politics, you can find a somewhat-decent horror movie under the whole mess. Mildly amusing

Review – Fargo

I was profoundly impressed by the realism of this movie. That’s sort of odd, since it features a hearty helping of the Coen brothers’ quirky sense of dark humor. But watching Murphy’s Law reap vengeance on a gaggle of bumbling, desperate criminals seems more than a little familiar to anyone who’s spent any time reading the case histories of actual kidnappers and murderers. Even if you set aside the crime drama elements, this picture would still have more than enough character and dialogue to keep it going. Neither as goofy as Raising Arizona nor quite as grim as Blood Simple, this is likely to prove to be the Coens’ finest hour. Buy the tape

Review – Saving Private Ryan

Stephen Spielberg takes a stab at directing a traditional World War II epic with all the heroic death, manly buddy relationships and thick “war is hell” message. But of course with the great Spielberg at the helm, everything is even more so. The heroic death (with a couple of exceptions that hark back to the get-shot-and-die-instantly approach from yesteryear) is graphic, the gore apparently meant to emphasize the tragedy of dying guys begging for their mothers. The buddy stuff is completely out of control. Worst of all, the heavy-handed emphasis on the futility of the mission – to find a soldier whose three brothers were all killed in combat – is so overplayed that it becomes more annoying than insightful. Perhaps some members of the audience need to be clubbed over the head with the message. For the rest of us, this movie supplies somewhat compelling characters, somewhat impressive battle sequences, a handful of amusing moments, a failed Oscar bid from Tom Hanks, and not a lot else. Mildly amusing

Review – Pi

I suppose I could have used the symbol rather than spelling the title out, the way the film distributor did. But I’m too lazy to change the font, using the symbol would create a question about the proper alphabetization of this entry, and to be blunt I think the whole symbol-as-title thing is more than just a little pretentious. Speaking of pretentious, I’m not a big fan of the black-and-white-as-graphic-statement approach to film-making either. All that notwithstanding, this is a somewhat engaging tale of a mentally-disturbed mathematician in search of a number that will provide the key to some sort of universal understanding. He is pursued by cabalistic Hasidim and Wall Street brokers until finally the whole mess drives him beyond the brink of insanity. The art film clichés end up interfering with what might otherwise have been a better production of a clever, intelligent script, or at least a concept for same. Mildly amusing

Review – Lady and the Tramp

There’s probably a whole book in nothing but the sexual politics of this film, the mildly dissatisfied suburbanite corrupted by the devil-may-care ne’er-do-well from the wrong side of the tracks. It’s also interesting to note how unsophisticated the animation was compared to what Disney is doing now (I saw Mulan the night before I rented this picture), and how crude the racial stereotypes are. Still, there’s a certain naive charm here, if you can get past all the outdated baggage. Mildly amusing